Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and Rep. Don Beyer reintroduced a bill Wednesday requiring uniformed federal officers to wear body cameras and have in-car cameras following the fatal 2017 shooting of unarmed motorist Bijan Ghaisar, which was not captured on video by the two U.S. Park Police officers involved. Norton and Beyer first introduced the bill in November, but the 115th session of Congress expired, requiring the legislation to be relaunched in the new session.
In addition, Norton (D-D. C.) and Beyer (D-Va.) said they were preparing legislation to ensure that federal agencies continue to work with local police officers who use body and dash cameras. The Washington Post reported last week that police officers assigned to federal task forces are prohibited from wearing their cameras, because no federal agencies use them. Atlanta police have withdrawn their officers from all task forces as a result, and several other cities are considering similar actions.
Ghaisar, 25, was fatally shot after a brief pursuit down George Washington Memorial Parkway on Nov. 17, 2017. The Park Police officers who followed and then shot Ghaisar — Lucas Vinyard and Alejandro Amaya — were not wearing body cameras and did not have in-car cameras. A Fairfax County police officer who joined the pursuit did have an in-car camera that recorded the incident, and a second Fairfax officer captured the end of the confrontation. Fairfax police publicly released both videos over federal objections.
The FBI took over the investigation, and a decision on charges will be made by the Justice Department’s civil rights division and U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu in Washington. No decision has been made after 19 months. The FBI and Liu declined to comment on the case Tuesday. A civil suit by the Ghaisars against Amaya and Vinyard is pending in federal court in Alexandria, Va. The officers remain on administrative duty with pay.
Norton and Beyer took an interest in the case in early 2018, announcing their intentions to introduce a bill requiring cameras for federal officers and meeting with Park Police Chief Robert MacLean. In November, their bill was introduced, stating, “Uniformed officers with the authority to conduct searches and make arrests shall wear a body camera.” The bill also required federal law enforcement agencies to “install in-car video camera recording equipment in all patrol vehicles.”
The new bill adds a section stating that officers shall not be required to use body cameras if recording “would risk the safety of a confidential informant, citizen informant, or undercover officers.” It also excludes recording if it poses “a serious risk to national security” or if the officer is a military police officer, is on a protective detail assigned to a federal or foreign officer, or is a member of the Army Criminal Investigation Command.
“Evidence consistently shows,” Norton said in a news release, “that body cameras help determine the facts and increase transparency of policing across the country. The federal government is late acknowledging that state and local law enforcement, including D.C.’s Metropolitan Police, already utilize best practices with encouraging results.”
Beyer said that “the still-unexplained killing of Bijan Ghaisar shows how important it is to make these reforms, which will benefit victims’ families, officers, and the communities they serve. Without the body camera footage from local police, the Ghaisars still would have almost no information about the death of their son.”
The Ghaisars have previously met with Beyer and expressed their support for the bill.
Federal officials have said they are reluctant to adopt cameras, because they do not want to expose informants, undercover investigators or certain arrest and investigative tactics.